To think that it's not hard to take a minute's silence?

[justwonderingtbh]

I work in Manchester. Today was the second anniversary of the attack, which is always going to be a sad day.
I work in an office call centre environment and everyone was briefed about a minute's silence that would be taking place at 2:30. Was told to not take calls after 25 past etc.
It came to half past and a bell was chimed for the silence, I was the only person who stood up for the silence which didn't bother me much but I did think that's the done thing. Also there were people still on their calls! More bothered about making a sale than remembering the 22!
Yes I understand that these people are just trying to hit their commission but just call the customer back afterwards. It has really angered me.

I know what you mean about the whole fuck you and carry on, but I do think it's also right to take time to reflect on the people we lost, and the people who's lives were changed. Not just sweep it under the rug, it's nice to remember these people.

It’s nice for the people directly affected to remember.

I’m going to be honest.

22 people died at the same time. That’s sad. I didn’t know them.

22 people died today in hospitals or road crashes or other accidents.

I didn’t know them either.

I’m sorry for your loss but why do I need to have a minutes silence for the 22.

You don't need to have a minute's silence for the 22? I never said you did haha

A terror attack happened in my hometown a few years ago. We had a minute's silence for it at my job, in a different city. I hated having to think about it for a minute, fighting back tears in public, and then carrying on with my job with it still on the back of my mind. I didn't even know anyone who died in the attacks, but I'd found it hard seeing footage of the destruction of places I'd been to many times. I'd have much preferred to carry on working and then cry at home.

I'm sure some people found the minute's silence important, but nobody can dictate how other people "should" react to disaster.

OP... Your thread is exactly about saying people, who didn't want to, should have respected a minutes silence.
Get the feeling a lot of this is made up though.

The minutes silence isn't only for the bereaved & injured, it's a way of showing the perpetrators that we won't live in fear of them that we all stand together & they can't destroy us.

I never said that everyone should take a minute's silence. I just thought that if pretty much everyone else in the room was taking part in one, then you'd also be quiet during it to show some respect. But I do get everyone's point about it not being forced etc. I was just emotional at the time and it got to me more than it should've.

But if they’re ‘being quiet’ then they are observing a minutes silence, and they don’t want to.
Like I said earlier I probably would it seems unnecessarily controversial not to, but others don’t.
What I can’t stand is uninvolved people posting shit on Facebook and sending thoughts and prayers that is purely attention seeking.

They respected your right to have a minutes silence, it's you that can't respect their decision to not, unless they were berating or criticising those that wanted to take part then that may be a different story.

I do think it's important to remember how this city suffered and still continues to suffer

What are you on about OP? Stop being so bloody dramatic. I’m a Mancunian. The city’s not suffering. Northerners are tough. People were shocked and upset. Then they moved on. You should too.

The north remembers. :)

Many people are still suffering in the aftermath of the attack. There are people who have had life changing injuries.
I'm happy that many people have moved on and can continue their lives as normal, but that isn't the case for everybody sadly.

That's exactly what I mean, it does seem unnecesarily controversial.

Yeh OP thats probably true. But no different to people who have been in a car crash or a house fire or any other event. What makes these people more important than those other people?

Of course they aren't more important. I'm not saying that it's right that certain tragedies take more precedence in the media and in people's lives than others.
I'm sure when 22 people are innocently murdered in a country on the other side of the world, it barely, if at all, makes our news.
Let's just say, for example, a cause that I am completely unfamiliar with, a tragedy that I have no links to, don't know much about it occurs. If my office held a minute's silence and I didn't have a clue what it was about or didn't care, then I would probably just shut up during it, and although I wouldn't be taking a minute to reflect, I wouldn't be standing out amongst the entire office. I think this about any type of silence.
The reason I was so emotional is obviously because it's a close to home subject, I completely understand that it is unimportant to others.

I agree that I have been maybe over passionate about this one small incident, but in general I do think that during a minute's silence for any occasion that, whilst no one should be forced, if someone talks through it, people will think they're a bit of a dick.

Not just sweep it under the rug, it's nice to remember these people.
Nobody is sweeping it under the rug.

So far OP all I'm hearing is 'it's awful they didn't do the silence, some of us were standing for it, speculation about how others might have felt, oh I'm not saying they should have done the minute silence but when we were doing the minute silence they shouldn't have made a sound out of respect for my minute silence that they don't have to do but I'm still angry about it hours later'

The sweeping it under the rug was a reply to someone who said not to do anything around the anniversary of the attack. Even if it's a celebration of the victims lives, I think that it is good to remember. And just because we do, it doesn't mean that the terrorists have won.

I'm sorry that you've been affected by this tragic event OP, it's obviously very closed to your heart. The thing is, never mind what other people do. You can't control and bend them to your will. You seem preoccupied with what you perceive to be the 'done thing' to do. There is no 'done thing'. 100 years ago there were different threats, not terrorism and not the media influence that there is now. Tragedies happened then just the same but I think people were generally more stoic and keen to put things behind them than they are now.

I think ReanimatedSGB's posts are pretty harsh, they made me wince - but I don't think she's wrong. Media sensationalism has skewed the public sense of reasonable dismay and distorted it into a misplaced sense of proprietorial outrage and determination to own, control and immortalise tragic (and newsworthy) events for extended periods of time. I personally don't think that's healthy and it achieves nothing other than perhaps some personal glorification for the person who publicly expresses their grief when they are several steps removed from the actual tragedy.

I remember Manchester last year, the cold feeling of shock and sadness. All very real. My own method of dealing with those feelings would be to quietly make a donation and/or do something good for somebody who needed it and/or pray and/or talk about it with somebody in RL. Those might be my methods, that doesn't mean that others need to share the same ones.

What I'm trying to say is that you/we should give the same tolerance to others that is extended to us. You were validated for your minute's silence as it was management-approved. The fact is that this seemingly wasn't enough for you, that instead of shrugging your shoulders, you followed this up with a thread seeking more validation in the form of outrage from others. You've changed your posts a little throughout the thread but tweaking them to fit won't work because we're not the borg, we have individual views and see different things in responses.

We all remember - or we don't - it's not mandatory to share that with anybody else and you are not entitled to demand that people do so.